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Sid Farkas...defender of John Sharp and the BOR!!

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Sid Farkas...defender of John Sharp and the BOR!!

Sid must have forgotten that it was his hero that deregulated tuition.

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student loan debt is approaching $2trill and is widely considered to be the straw/camels-back to spur the next financial crisis. The status quo...entrenched education interests ranging from tenured professors to admin at all levels have been fighting bor cost improvements for more than five years now. (Having a heck of a lot more success than Wisc's unionized govt employees for sure). Why would they want things to change? Who doesn't want an all-but-guaranteed salary and mind-bogglingly early retirement?...all with no pressure to improve. (Taxpayers be damned!)
Defying the laws of economics is an act that cannot go on forever...and the end might be closer than you knuckleheads think.

Perry and Sharp are not only not a part of that status quo, they are pushing back on it. And apparently the status quo's best defense are weak attempts at character assassination and juvenile mis-direction campaigns. Meh.

You are defending the degradation of students' long term financial outlook. Way to go gang.

Message to students: it's time to stand up for yourself.

Link

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Yet he feels the need to put marketing/branding/money as a priority in addition to decreasing the quality of education with the 25x25 initiative and lowering the standards of admission. Let's not forget about the priorities of renaming the academic building, the flag room, and Kyle Field to the the house that Johnny built. This is in addition to the University Seal priority. Yes, old John Sharp's priorities are certainly in line with everything you just stated.

A million priorities and some people will conveniently obfuscate by picking out four of them, mischaracterize them by conflating them...turning them into red herrings...and completely characterize bor's motivation as being solely comprised of those comparatively trivial issues...

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decreasing the quality of education with the 25x25 initiative

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...this is an untruth (the opportunity in it is, in reality, just the opposite)...and this is the real reason behind the seal and flag room silliness.

IMO, it sounds like there are a lot of folks out there who don't care whether or not students get a bang for their buck.

And those taxpayers? ehhh...they're just a bunch of rich guys who refuse to pay their fair share...they should just stfu and not question how their tax dollars are being wasted...err, spent.

Eff everyone except the people who profit off of public higher education, right?

Sid, if you haven't noticed you are the only one defending Sharp and the BOR.

The Academic Building, flag room, seal, Kyle Field and President's house are trivial to other universities. They are not trivial to Aggies. Also, making changes for no reason and taking action outside of the BORs responsibilities for marketing/branding purposes is unacceptable. Their recent agenda items are equivalent to Congress voting on a stamp as a priority with everything that is going on in the world.

Lastly, please explain how increasing the college of engineering to 25K (half of A&M's current student population) will improve quality?

Tell John hello for all of us on Monday.

Sharp needs to concentrate on making Caddyshack III.

Sharp hanging on as chancellor makes me glad I'm graduating in a week, and glad I decided to go to grad school at a much better school than A&M (a fellow land grant school, I might add).

Sharp sounds like he's always drunk

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Sid, if you haven't noticed you are the only one defending Sharp and the BOR.

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meaningless...this board proved itself long ago to have more than its' share of misfits, morons and intellectually immature adults...there have been other posts in support. Plus I've gotten more than a couple of star clicks on my posts on various threads, so...not alone.

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The Academic Building, flag room, seal, Kyle Field and President's house are trivial to other universities. They are not trivial to Aggies. Also, making changes for no reason and taking action outside of the BORs responsibilities for marketing/branding purposes is unacceptable. Their recent agenda items are equivalent to Congress voting on a stamp as a priority with everything that is going on in the world.

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you, ma'am...you're either a drama queen or a phony. So c'mon, fess up Sally...which one are you? (Btw, I'm an aggie and I see this as trivial. You def don't speak for me)

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Lastly, please explain how increasing the college of engineering to 25K (half of A&M's current student population) will improve quality?

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https://engineering.tamu.edu/25by25
...I'll let you do the rebutting

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Tell John hello for all of us on Monday.

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I've never met the man. Surely won't see him on Monday unless he happens to be near me (a loong way from CS)

I am also leaving A&M for a much better grad school, and glad that I am. As for 25by25, I personally know at least one excellent tenured professor who left for a "worse" job because he was fed up with the program and felt the quality and perceived quality of his job was being greatly diminished. Absolutely NONE of the productive research faculty (read: not the yes-men deans and political do-nothing's) think this is a good idea, and speaking to other profs in my department, A&M is having a real problem recruiting new faculty members because of the changes. Good undergrad students (especially those like myself and my friend who have won national fellowships) are leaving A&M at a rapid rate. I'm seeing good research talent leave A&M at lightning speed because of 25x25. It's not a myth or a possibility; it's happening right now.

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Painful perhaps. But nothing compared to the insufferable bedwetters we've been hearing from on this board ever since the phony seal drama began early this week.

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How long have you been advising for the Obama admin?

The general engineering program as part of 25x25 is also a joke. A non-trivial amount of students who came to A&M wanting to study a specific engineering discipline were rejected from their major because of size restrictions. So if you came in wanting to be a mechanical engineer but you didn't meet the cut, you can either apply for another major (have you considered ocean engineering?), wait and apply next semester (with no guarantee or getting in), or to just go pound sand. Now you may say: well it is their fault for not getting good enough grades to get in, isn't it? Well that may be true, but if I am a high school senior and was dead set on being a certain type of engineer, why the hell would I go to A&M where there is no guarantee of getting into my major when I could go to UT or even a lower ranked school with a guarantee to have a spot? I know what choice I would have made if I was two years younger, and unfortunately I doubt it would be here. Believe me, word is being spread out to high quality high schools students about these changes.

It is pretty embarrassing to hear faculty and employers expressing their concern about the direction the program is headed when the reputation of our degree is still at stake. It is even more embasassing to have the college pretend to care what we think when the vast majority of my classmates are against the idea but no one seems to address our concerns. Anyone who thinks this is a good idea has been to too many new-age education conferences or has been lapping up the John Sharp/Kathy Banks propaganda. Some might not care about what the "entitled millennial" students and "mooching liberal" faculty think, but don't say you didn't see this coming.

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Tell John hello for all of us on Monday.

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Gonna be tough...not nice to talk when your mouth is full.

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meaningless...this board proved itself long ago to have more than its' share of misfits, morons and intellectually immature adults...there have
been other posts in support. Plus I've gotten more than a couple of
star clicks on my posts on various threads, so...not alone.

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So you imply that you are above everyone on here and that you are more mature than others on this site, but then you post this...

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you, ma'am...you're either a drama queen or a phony. So c'mon, fess up Sally...which one are you? (Btw, I'm an aggie and I see this as trivial.
You def don't speak for me)

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Unlike you I won't call names and then hide behind my handle.

Oh and good for you for getting a couple of blue star clicks. Let me know when you reach 16,000 clicks and have two unanimous student body votes in support of your arguments.

https://engineering.tamu.edu/25by25
^ This did nothing to help your argument. You gave me a TAMU link that of course is going to say everything is grand and wonderful about the 25x25 initiative.